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100 a day in May

I don’t know about you, but my job can be quite sedentary. Lots of time spent in front of the computer or looking at skulls, very little time getting any exercise – obviously not counting my stint as Extreme Curator…

Every so often I try to get off my backside and do something approaching exercise, but because I am fundamentally lazy, I can find it hard to get motivated.

Last year I forced myself to do the Push-ups Challenge (100 push-ups a day for 6 weeks) and by the end of the challenge I was feeling far stronger, more toned and significantly more self-satisfied, because I’d stuck to my goals.

One of the things that helped me was to share my progress each day on Twitter as way of keeping track of the challenge. What I hadn’t expected was the support and encouragement that came from people online, which really made me feel like I wanted to complete the challenge.

I’ve decided to do a version of the challenge again this year, during May and I hope to encourage other people to take part. The hashtag on Twitter is #100aDayInMay and if you feel like doing some exercise with some training buddies to offer support and encouragement, why not join in?

The rules are simple:

try to do 100 push-ups a day. Both full and half push-ups are fine, and you can split them into as many sets as you need. 20 sets of 5 are as good as 5 sets of 20 in this challenge. Ideally, by the end of May you’ll be able to do fewer sets of more push-ups, maybe with some harder variations included – like doing full push-ups as well as/instead of half push-ups, or elevating your feet if you want to really challenge yourself.

don’t injure yourself. Use good form on your push-ups and if you have any medical issues please check with your doctor before trying the challenge.

share and support! Anyone can decide to do some push-ups, but it’s more fun and more motivational if you share what you’re doing with the other people taking part (you can find them on this list). If you want to join in, just send a tweet containing the hashtag #100aDayInMay saying that you’re taking part. Remember that other people like to be encouraged too, so don’t forget to support the others taking part.

Finally, here’s a video explaining good form in both full and half push-ups (although the guy’s bum seems to be raised a little bit too high for perfect form):